ere; just come over from Frampton to see his mother; an he says
John will be here to-morrer or next day. 'Be seed him yesterday--pulled
down dreadful--quite the old man, 'ee says. An John told him as he was
comin 'ome directly to live comfortable.'

Bessie drew her shawl over her head.

'To-morrer, did yer say?' she asked in a whisper.

'Mos like. Now you go to sleep; I'll put out the lamp.'

But all night long Bessie lay wide awake in torment, her soul hardening
within her, little by little.

SCENE IV

Just before dark on the following day, a man descended
from a down train at the Clinton Magna station. The porters knew him and
greeted him; so did one or two labourers outside, as he set off to walk
to the village which was about a mile distant.

'Well, John, so yer coom back,' said one of them, an old man, grasping
the newcomer by the hand. 'An I can't say as yer looks is any credit to
Frampton--no, that aa can't.'

John, indeed, wore a sallow and pinched air, and walked lamely, with a
stick.

'Noa,' he said, peevishly; 'it's a beastly place is Frampton; a damp,
nassty hole as iver I saw--gives yer the rheumaticks to look at it. I've
'ad a doose of a time, I 'ave, I can tell yer--iver sense I went. But
I'll pull up now.'

'Aye, this air'll do yer,' said the other. 'Where are yer stoppin?
Costrells'?'

John nodded.

'They don't know nothin about my comin, but I dessay they'll find me
somethin to sleep on. I'll 'ave my own place soon, and some one to look
arter it.'

He drew himself up involuntarily, with the dignity that waits on
property.

A laugh, rather jeering than cordial, ran through the group of
labourers.

'Aye, yer'll be livin at your ease,' said the man who had spoken first.
'When will yo give us a drink, yer lardship?'

The others grinned.

'Where's your money, John?' said a younger man suddenly, staring hard at
the returned wanderer.

John started.

'Don't you talk your nonsense!' he said, fretfully; 'an I must be gettin
on, afore dark.'

He went his way, but as he turned a corner of the road, he saw them
still standing where he had left them. They seemed to be watching his
progress, which astonished him.

A light of windy sunset lay spread over the white valley, and the
freshening gusts drove the powdery snow before them, and sent little
stabs of pain through John's shrinking body. Yet how glad he was to find
himself again between those familiar hedges, to see the church